PerkinElmer has completed the purchase of Nexcelom Bioscience, one of its portfolio companies and a provider of automated cell counting solutions, from Ampersand Capital Partners for $260 million in cash.

Nexcelom is the manufacturer of Cellometer, Cellaca MX, and Celigo image cytometry products for cell analysis in drug discovery, development, and manufacturing workflows.  In 2018, Nexcelom received an investment from Ampersand Capital Partners to support its rapid growth in aiding the discovery and development of cell, gene, and immuno-oncology therapies, virology drugs, and vaccines.

“Nexcelom was founded with the goal of assisting bench scientists by automating tedious and manual cell counting processes,” said Peter Li, president and CEO of Nexcelom Bioscience.  “Over the past eighteen years the Company has worked closely with our customers to develop powerful tools to solve their complex challenges in rapidly developing cell-based assay and biomanufacturing markets.  Ampersand’s support and guidance over the past three years has been an important part of the Nexcelom story, and I feel fortunate to have had the opportunity to partner with them.”

Eric Lev, general partner of Ampersand Capital Partners, added, “When Ampersand began its partnership with co-owners Peter Li and CTO & Founder Jean Qiu about three years ago, we saw promise in Nexcelom’s technology and believed we could help the company leverage its unique solutions to expand its presence in therapeutics development and manufacturing support.  It has been extremely rewarding to participate in Nexcelom’s sucess during our investment period, and we believe that as part of PerkinElmer Nexcelom will be well positioned to serve customers worldwide in the development of life-changing drugs and vaccines.”